The Snowman (Vintage Crime/Black Lizard)

by Jo Nesbo

Other authorsDon Bartlett (Translator)

Paperback, 2012

Status

Available

Call number

839.8238

Series

Harry Hole (7)

Genres

Mystery

All Topics

Fiction

Publication

Vintage (2012), Edition: Reprint, Paperback, 512 pages

Description

"In Oslo, after the first snow of the season has fallen, a woman disappears, and a sinister snowman is left in her wake. As irascible detective Harry Hole realizes that this is only one of multiple disappearances, he begins to think a serial killer may be at work--and may be drawing in Hole personally and intentionally"--

Media reviews

Kirkus Reviews

Harry is pleasingly human, with a capacity for hard, grueling work being one of his best features, and the rest of the characters say and do believable things, the murderous snowman notwithstanding. The Norwegian settings are sometimes exotic, sometimes just grimy—who knew that Oslo had a

high-crime area?—but always appropriate to the story, which unfolds at just the right pace.

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User reviews

LibraryThing member mckait

Harry Hole is the lead investigator on a case that becomes
more complicated by the day. He is pleased when a new officer, Katrine Bratt
is assigned to his team. She seems like an efficient and investigator. She
even reminds him a bit of himself.

The book starts when a the mother of a young boy goes

missing.
The boy, Jonas.. finds her scarf, a scarf he had given her, around
the neck of a snowman that appeared in his yard one night. Jonas dad
is not only unsympathetic, but is harsh and unfeeling. Could he have
had something to do with the disappearance?

In the days to follow, other woman go missing, and it becomes
increasingly difficult to find a common thread. Katrine Bratt,
while helping with the investigation believes she has found
a link.. and she brings the information to Harry's attention.
Some years back, another investigator disappeared while working
on a similar crime. Could Harry himself be a target, as well as
the ever growing list of women?

And what does his ex-girlfriend have to do with it? She and
Harry are still friends, and Harry feels a strong bond with Oleg, her
young son. Oleg has strong feelings for Harry as well.

There is so much to this story, it is difficult to give any
hints without including spoilers. So I will say only that this
is a really good read. I hated having to put it down. I have not read
anything else by this author yet, but believe me, I will. I do
recommend this book for anyone who loves a good mystery or crime novel.

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24 more

LibraryThing member Meredy

I can't give this book a very enthusiastic endorsement. Yes, it's an intriguing mystery, and yes, the detective is a complex enough character to hold my interest. And no, I didn't guess the solution too soon, although I did immediately see the red herrings as false trails.

Yet I just found this book

annoying and ultimately unsatisfying.

Usually I can explain the reasons for my opinions in excruciating detail, but this time I seem only to be able to cross off nonreasons.

• Too many characters with hard-to-remember Scandinavian names? No, not a problem with Steig Larsson, so that's not it.

• Detective too gruff, flawed, conflicted, and unlikable? No, Harry Hole follows squarely in a long tradition of all-too-human detectives fighting their own inner battles while besting a worthy opponent.

• Poor writing? Not at all. Allowing for translation, the writing flows, descriptions are apt, pacing is good, language is competent and confident, and so on.

• Bad plot? Nope. Premise is interesting, snowman motif is intriguing and appropriately chilling, revelations accomplished timely and well. It might be a stretch to grant an author not one but two rare, incurable hereditary diseases that figure prominently in the plot, but I don't think the story really suffered for that.

But wait. Story. Ok, I did have trouble with all the discontinuous bits of narrative, had trouble holding them in my head while awaiting a framework to mount them on. And the usual narrative hooks are characters and situations. Difficult-to-remember character names, some of them too similar, were an obstacle there, and the patterns that characterized the killer's M.O. also blurred the distinctions among situations.

• Characterizations. Maybe this is where the author falters. Harry is clear and vivid, but all the others from major to minor seem to lack substance. They move like puppets on a string or playing pieces on a board. This could be why I don't remember their names. I finished the book last night, and today I can scarcely recall a thing about the personality of the girlfriend, the beloved kid, the killer, the obsessed officer, or the victims. Only one or two have any dimensions.

I think perhaps this last point is the key for me: a feeling of arbitrariness, flatness, and juicelessness in all the characters but the principal, the detective. It's as if he were engaging with shadows. And perhaps he is, in a way, but then that would have to be a different novel.

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LibraryThing member auntmarge64

Inspector Harry Hole, of the Oslo police, is the only cop in Norway with any training and experience in tracking serial killers, but because serial killing in the country is so rare, his superiors are reluctant to agree when he thinks a new one is on the loose. The murders stretch across the

country and back fourteen years, so recognition of the pattern has been hindered. Now the killing has become more frequent and more blatant, and as red herrings multiply, Harry and his team disregard official warnings and follow his instincts, even as he begins to suspect the killer is trying to draw him in.

This is suspense writing at its best – believable action, great dialogue, interesting characters, and a group of equally plausible villains. I did deduct a half star for some unnecessarily (IMO) graphic sex (enough so I felt uncomfortable handing this on to a 20-something niece), and be forewarned that the violence is very graphic. I’ve already downloaded the sequel to my Kindle and I’ve ordered some of the earlier titles from the library.

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LibraryThing member catarina1

It seems that any-and-all Scandanavian writers these days are being called the next Steig Larsson. Don't believe it, most are not.

Gruesome, in a word, describes this one. Gratuitous violence against women. Reminds me of the slasher movies. Don't waste your time.

LibraryThing member AramisSciant

Excellent and exciting thriller. Some of the twists were a bit more predictable but all the characters, even secondary ones, are tight, interesting and very well written. Although it's the first book I read from this author, it seems the the protagonist detective, Harry Hole, has several novels

under his belt. This story definitely made me want to read others.
And what's up with Scandinavian crime? It seems those are pretty dangerous countries... :o)

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LibraryThing member smik

The way children turn out is determined mainly by two things: conscious decisions their parents make; and their DNA over which they have no control at all. Sometimes the two combine with totally unpredictable consequences.

Nearly twenty four years after the day in November 1980 when Sara Kvinesland

spent 40 minutes making love to her nippleless lover while her son waited in the car, the first snow arrived early in November. Inspector Harry Hole of the Oslo Police Crime Squad thought of the peculiar letter he had received a few weeks earlier. On that day too Katrine Bratt from Bergen joined the Oslo squad, and that night Jonas Becker awoke to find his mother gone.

By the middle of the next day the early snow has melted and the snowman in the front garden is on the point of collapse. When Jonas Becker tells Harry Hole that he doesn't know who made the snowman, and that during the night it was wearing his mother's scarf, Harry thinks again of the strange letter.

Has Harry finally identified a serial killer? Twelve years before there was a death where the killer's "signature" had seemed to be a snowman. And the policeman in charge of that case had disappeared without trace. And Harry has that letter...

There are many threads that hold this novel together: a celebrity who has a hereditary disease who has passed it onto his children, cases of women who have disappeared without trace, important calendar dates in the lives of American Presidents, and Harry's personal life, under acute attack from a number of angles.

Harry Hole will be permanently scarred by the events of THE SNOWMAN, but do we believe him when in the final pages he says he is going away and never coming back?

Despite its length THE SNOWMAN is a real page turner, and will not disappoint. Somehow the character of Harry Hole seemed a bit clearer to me: he still has his problems with alcohol, he is constantly focussed on his work, and there are those in the police hierarchy who see him as an easy scapegoat. But the values that make Harry the good cop that he is come come through loud and clear.

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LibraryThing member woolenthusiast

I was slightly put of this by all the adverts at the train station and the fact they so clearly wanted to get the people who'd read all the Steig Larsson books. Nesbo is very good in his own right and really the main comparisons are that he is a Scandinavian crime writer.

Really good, genuinely

scary and with good twists and turns. Had to return this to the library about 200 pages before the end so i had to go and buy a copy because i couldn't bare to wait. I will be reading more by Nesbo

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LibraryThing member JosephLYoung

An amazing suspense filled book set in Norway (written by Jo Nesbo and translated by Don Bartlette). The lead homicide detective, Harry Hole seems to be the only detective in all of Norway who has actually solved a serial killer case and that while visiting in Australia. Apparently, Norway is so

small that serial killings are rare to non-existent. I found the darkness and apparent antisocial behavior to be similar to the characters in other Scandinavian literature I've read. Must be an element of living so far north and in such a cold environment. I did really enjoy the series of plausible solutions to the case that turned out to be just another false start. I have to admit that I jumped on the band wagon almost every time and then felt foolish for not discerning the clues that argued against that easy solution. The path markings were there but, I was just too eager to jump to the wrong conclusions (much like the police management). Yes, politics reared it's ugly head and administrators were more interested in pacifying the ghosts of public opinion than actually solving the case. Harry had a dark side too (an alcoholic and fornicator) but the case was Harry's whole life and he didn't let his weaknesses interfere with his search for the villain. Harry succeeds against all odds and after being subjected to much emotional and physical abuse. A case of the weak but good triumphing over evil and saving his loved ones as well. Hard to determine if Harry will ever discover happiness and find rest from the devils that drive him. A very good read with enough twists and turns to make revisits entertaining and likely.

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LibraryThing member ctkjs

It's definitely hard to get past the name choice for the protagonist, Harry Hole. I have a lot of questions about that decision alone. As noted by the two stars, this one was just ok. I had trouble liking Harry. He seemed like a hot mess. I think I expected this weird genius when he seemed more

flaky, kind of rude and needs to get his s*t together. This is definitely one of those thrillers that if you pay attention, you can probably figure out who did it. You can probably figure it out sooner than the Harry himself. Not sure I'll be seeking out more of this series in the future.

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LibraryThing member BillPilgrim

This is the third book by Nesbo that I have read, all featuring Det. Harry Hole, of the Oslo police. He again struggles with his alcoholism, and pursues his relationship with Rakel, while trying to solve the murders committed by the serial killer that the police have dubbed The Snowman, because he

leaves a snowman at the scene of his crimes. The plot is very well crafted. After a wrong accusation or two (giving nothing away here really, because there is so much of the book left when these red herrings come up that you know the story cannot be over yet) the result was not something that I had anticpated. I mostly enjoyed the book. It is fairly well written/translated, the plot is tight, and the characters are likeable (the ones your supposed to like anyway).

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LibraryThing member laluna179

Good book but hard to follow....lots of characters with complicated Norwegian names. I felt like I should have made a chart with descriptions of who was who. It had a bit character that apparently meant something that I never really figured out...I think the author meant for him to come up in

future novels. The killer was a real surprise. I am not sure how I feel about reading another book about the main character...Harry Hole. The story had plenty of surprises and gory murders. Overall, a good read.

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LibraryThing member ritaer

A bit of cliche with alcoholic, burnt out detective in pursuit of serial killer while his superiors posture for publicity. Several surprising plot twists in tale of killer who targets married women with children and kills undetected over the course of s couple of decades.

LibraryThing member Itzey

This was my first Nesbo book and has introduced me to "Harry Hole". I enjoyed the thriller and look forward to reading the next in the series, "The Leopard". I will pick up some of the earlier books to get background on the characters.

LibraryThing member voracious

On the surface, "The Snowman" looks like any other contemporary serial killer thriller. There is the trademark alcoholic detective who is not in good standings with the management because of his tendency to go on binges and not show up for work. There is the thrown-in female sidekick with sexual

allure. The case itself involves a gruesome series of murders that may have been taking place for decades. Set in Norway, women who are both wives and mothers have suddenly gone missing on the fist snow of the year and most of the bodies have not been found. The only remnant of their presence is a snowman built in the yard. Harry had only solved one serial killer case before and has recently returned from the USA after training with the FBI. However, serial killers are exceedingly rare in Norway (or if on the loose, not attracting attention) and so the department is concerned that Harry may be making a big deal out of a couple of disappearances. As the story develops (and indeed it is a long story), the tension between the Snowman and the victims and Harry starts to increase. Indeed, it seemed that you couldn't go a chapter without some nailbiting situation developing. Unlike typical thrillers, Nesbo puts a lot of time into plot formation, introducing a wide range of potential suspects, setting the plot and scene, and developing the complex relationships between the characters. I can see why this novel has been compared to Steig Larsson's Dragon Tattoo books as the pace and effort put into this book is obvious. Like Larsson's books, this story unwinds slowly and meticulously, and the reader is given privy to the inner dialogue of alternate characters along the way.

Despite it's steady pace, I found I could NOT put this book down. In fact, I had dreams about this book for days while reading it. While I was at work, it would infiltrate my thoughts as I had to get back to the storyline. For me, these are all signs that a book is excellent and as such, I highly recommend it!

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LibraryThing member nbmars

The Snowman (2010) is the 5th translated book in the Detective Inspector Harry Hole series.

Jo Nesbo’s Norwegian police procedurals are hard to describe. On the surface, they’re incredibly formulaic, and in this one, I figured out who the murderer was 173 pages before the end. (Ti on the other

hand figured it out almost at the beginning!) But did this stop either one of us from feeling as if we were on a wild ride from start to finish? No way! Nesbo is very good at creating suspense, and I love the persona of his detective, Inspector Harry Hole.

Nesbo writes the kind of book that leads me to go back and re-read parts, because I race through much too fast to find out what will happen so I can get my heart out of my throat.

Harry Hole is a forty-year-old inspector with the crime squad of the Oslo Police Headquarters. Other officers regard Harry as “a self-willed, arrogant, argumentative, unstable alcoholic.” He himself agrees he has a “difficult temperament” and is a lone wolf. We, the readers, however, know Harry to be more than that: not only does he have exceptional powers of analysis and intuition, but he is a thoughtful, good, and passionate man in the grip of boundless fears and obsessions against which he must constantly struggle. He is not only addicted to alcohol, but to the thrill that comes when he gets close to solving a murder case:

"Harry could feel the adrenaline rush, the trembling that always came when he got first scent of the brute. And after the rush came to Great Obsession. Which was everything at once: love and intoxication, blindness and clear-sightedness, meaning and madness. …it helped him, drove him, fueled the job he was appointed to perform.”

He has a moral decency that most of his colleagues don’t acknowledge, focused as they are on Harry’s tendency to plunge into the abyss from time to time. And he blames himself and takes it hard when a murder is committed; he feels it could have been prevented if only he had been better at doing his job.

Currently, Hole is struggling to accept the new relationship of his ex-girlfriend Rakel, who is seeing a doctor, Mathias Lund-Helgesen, a friendly man who seems to be the polar opposite of Harry. But Rakel’s son Oleg still thinks of Harry as his “dad” and Rakel encourages Harry to do activities with him. Harry has a gentle affection for Oleg that adds a very warm and touching element to the story. But seeing Oleg just keeps Rakel in Harry’s life and makes it more difficult for him to get over her.

At work, Harry is investigating a spate of missing women. There is always a rather frightening looking snowman left at the scene of the [presumed] crime. His team includes a new (and attractive) officer, Katrine Bratt, who was previously at the Bergen Police HQ; a sexist slime-bucket who is however a good police officer, Magnus Skarre; and the quirky but talented Bjorn Holm from the Forensics Unit. Harry chases down one possibility after another with no luck, and the bodies keep piling up. And Henry himself is in extreme danger.

Evaluation: This author is so good! Opening one of his books is like strapping into a roller coaster and starting that long climb up the steep hill. And then whoosh – off you go racing up and down in the flimsy cars that toss you about, and you want to close your eyes but you can’t because you might miss something, and you’re very scared but you’re loving every minute of it!

And for those of you who are into psychological explorations, Harry Hole has enough existential angst for the biggest fans of contemplation. Questions about life and death? Harry is pondering them all the time, just before succumbing to the bottle after a particularly unappealing answer.... But when he's not morose and gloomy, he's occasionally warm, often sexy, and always intellectually exciting. Can't help lovin' that man.

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LibraryThing member bfister

I'm a great fan of this series and enjoy the main character, Harry Hole, very much in spite of him seeming to be a walking set of cliches. I must say this book disappointed me, though, perhaps because the earlier ones set the bar so high. In this case, someone is killing women who have been

unfaithful to their husbands, and building creepy snowmen. An interesting female character is introduced, but the whole plot goes into a rut. I hate to say it, but if you skip this one, you won't be missing much. I hope Nesbo returns to form in the next book.

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LibraryThing member KLTMD

The PR for this book is along the lines of "The Next Stieg Larson." Bah, Humbug. Jo Nesbo is damn good and this book is the most harrowing yet. Terrific.

LibraryThing member InigoMontoya

There's nothing new here in a well-explored genre of flawed, tired detective vs serial killing psychopath but Nesbo is adept at misdirection which is always welcome. The murders are brutal and the rationale for them expectedly bizarre yet strangely logical. Being marketed at the next Stig Larsson

is doubtless more curse than compliment for Nesbo, particularly as it invites comparison beyond the fact that both are Scandinavian writers. One of the things I liked most in Larsson's trilogy was the way I felt informed about Swedish society as a whole. Nesbo does not do the same for Norway and I know little more about that country than I knew before, save perhaps that American events and culture are followed closely. That said, this is the seventh book. albeit the first I've read, and as a criticism may not stand up on reading the earlier books in the series. I enjoyed The Snowman well enough to want to read more.

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LibraryThing member John

I like Jo Nesbo, and his emotionally flawed, but brilliant detective Harry Hole. Harry has lost partners in the past (Nesbo does not shy away from killing off good people!), and he has had a serious drinking problem which he battles daily, but he is the best detective in Oslo so the powers-that-be

cut him a lot of slack. The basic plot here is that of a serial killer known as the Snowman (because he kills on the first day of snowfall and generally announces his presence with a snowman in a yard or on a hill), who has issued a personal challenge to Hole, the one police officer in Denmark who has acquired a reputation for tracking serial killers. The plot is ingenious with the connections that lead to the realization that a serial killer of women is active and the patterns that allow the police to start to move in towards their elusive quarry, and is guaranteed to keep you turning the pages. Nesbo moves back and forth between the hunt (the detectives trying to identify the killer and anticipate next moves) and the victims who are unaware of the fate that is closing in on them; and more than once it seems that the police have found the Snowman only to have Hole raise those awkward questions that point to over-hasty conclusions. There is a wide cast of characters, interesting plot twists, and constant tension in the action. A good read.

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LibraryThing member christinelstanley

Really good book; the plot twists and turns, with so many red herrings that the unexpected pops up all over the place. Violent, but not too gruesome.

Initially, the various threads were difficult to follow (hence not quite five stars) but they all came together by the end beautifully. There were a

couple of elements that were highly improbable but they are potentially spoilers so I won't detail further. They did not however, reduce my enjoyment. I would look out for more books by this author as a result of reading this novel

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LibraryThing member picardyrose

A little on the gory side -- well, anytime someone is decapitated. Also, I knew who the bad guy was the first time he was described..

LibraryThing member kelly.m.storrs

The book felt contrived at first and I found it hard to take it seriously. Once the suspense kicked in (about a quarter the way through the book) I found myself scared to read alone at night. Harry Hole had a suspect but the reader doesn't know who it is at the end of the second to last part. The

last part details the killer's life from childhood to the present, which ruins the suspense. It returns to the present near the end for one last intense scene, but I was disappointed with the break in action to detail the killer's life. This was my first Nesbo book. I would read another to see if this is a trend of his or if the other ones maintain the suspense better.

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LibraryThing member HeyYeah

I listened to this on audiobook. It was 12 hours long but I think it should have been edited down to something more like 8 hours. In places the plot really dragged although it picked up towards the end.

LibraryThing member magentaflake

Have been waaiting to get my hands on this book and was not disappointed. However, it is a thick book and my arms gor sore just holding it.
A small criticsm - why would the Chief of police send a young, pretty female to Hongkongto search for an alcoholic and drug user?Why not send an older, more

experienced police officer, man or woman, who knows his/her way around. I know, it is fiction but, personally, I would like to read something true to life.
And why does the alcoholic drug user5, ex policeman have to fall for her and have the inevitable sex? It is so predictable and kind of spoilt a well-written story for me.

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LibraryThing member thornton37814

Norway has its first serial killer who leaves behind a snowman as his signature. Harry Hole is the only detective with experience tracking serial killers. He sets out to find the person responsible for the deaths in what appears at first to be a missing persons case. It's a mystery filled with

suspense -- much of it a little too nightmarish for my personal taste. Although I understand why the author used it, I don't enjoy reading things that involve sex crimes. While this one doesn't go all that far in that direction, it did so to an extent beyond my comfort level. It's a well-plotted mystery, full of action that builds the suspense. There are some formatting issues with the Kindle version that make it a little awkward to read in places. It's not on every page but there are awkward line breaks and breaks in the middle of words. This review is based on an advance reader's e-galley provided by the publisher through NetGalley, and it is hoped that the formatting issues will be resolved in the final version.

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